Bunch of questions about werewolves in 3.5 system, their DR and Alternate Form

[arkieNork]

Party had a fight with a werewolf.

Werewolf rolled a critical fumble. On our crit fumble table, the result came out to "accidentally bites own tongue, 1d3 Damage, unable to produce vocal component of spells for 1d4 rounds"

There was a bit of an argument on whether this should apply to werewolves.

1. do the natural attacks of creatures with DR, bypass their own defenses?

2. Can a werewolf hurt itself with its own natural attacks?

3. if two basic werewolves fight without silver, are crits the only way they can hurt each other? (natural attacks 1d6+4 vs DR 10)

4. Should creatures with DR be presumed to be immune to all minor accidental injuries? Can a werewolf sprain an ankle?

Second line of questioning - the werewolf surrendered at end of combat.

Alternate Form:

5. If a werewolf in human form is tied up with a rope, what happens when it tries to use its Alternate Form (Su) ability?

6. Any ways to prevent it from using its Alternate Form (Su) ability aside from keeping it unconscious?

Any relevant rules, sources or online discussions on this welcome.

[InvisibleBison]

1. do the natural attacks of creatures with DR, bypass their own defenses?

I believe they don't by default. There's nothing in the damage reduction rules (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#damageReduction) to suggest they do, and there are a number of monsters whose entries specifically say their natural weapons count as this or that for bypassing DR (e.g., the hound archon (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/archon.htm#houndArchon)).


2. Can a werewolf hurt itself with its own natural attacks?

In theory yes, but it would take some doing to overcome its own DR.


3. if two basic werewolves fight without silver, are crits the only way they can hurt each other? (natural attacks 1d6+4 vs DR 10)

That seems to be how the rules fall out, though I do think I'd houserule werewolves to be able to overcome their own DR because this scenario seems rather silly.


4. Should creatures with DR be presumed to be immune to all minor accidental injuries? Can a werewolf sprain an ankle?

I don't think spraining an ankle would do HP damage, so DR wouldn't apply. That being said, I think DR would protect against a wide variety of minor injuries, those that are the same sort of thing as attacks that do HP damage but at too small of a scale to inflict even 1 damage.


5. If a werewolf in human form is tied up with a rope, what happens when it tries to use its Alternate Form (Su) ability?

The rules for alternate form (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#alternateForm) don't directly address this point. I'd rule that ropes binding the creature count as gear that it is wearing, and so would either change to accommodate the new form, since the amount of rope needed to restrain a human could also restrain a wolf.


6. Any ways to prevent it from using its Alternate Form (Su) ability aside from keeping it unconscious?

There are some. Alternate Form is a supernatural ability, so it can be blocked by an antimagic field. The spell ability rip can cause a creature to permanently lose a supernatural ability (though it's a 7th level spell that takes an hour to cast and allows for a save, so it's probably not suitable for your situation). There's probably a magic item somewhere for exactly this situation, but I don't know what it is (and it's probably hugely overpriced). Mind control magic might be a viable alternative - instead of making it unable to change form, make it unwilling to change form.

[sleepyphoenixx]

1. Rules compendium goes into a little more detail regarding DR.
Short form: if a creature has DR/magic or /epic it also overcomes that type of damage reduction, if it has an alignment subtype its attacks overcome damage reduction of that type.
Other forms of DR (slashing/bludgeoning/piercing or cold iron/silver) don't automatically allow a creature to overcome that type of DR.

2. If it overcomes its own DR.

3. yes

4. 3.5 doesn't really have injuries like that, so you'll have to houserule something.

5. I'd argue that being tied up with rope is not the same thing as wearing said rope, so i'd say it simply falls to the ground. YMMV.

6. The Countermoon spell (SpC) is specifically designed for that. Antimagic field or the nauseated condition also prevent it since it's supernatural and requires a standard action.

[arkieNork]

1...


I...

Thank you both for clarification.

[Paragon]

4. Should creatures with DR be presumed to be immune to all minor accidental injuries? Can a werewolf sprain an ankle?

Stumbled upon this very issue with my group. The answer is in the first line of the Damage Reduction presentation :
A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks.